For years I'd have said Baker or Pertwee, depending on the time of day, but having seen a few of the old serials with Hartnel, he has become my favorite. His character often has all the many facets the many actors have chosen to portray, but he blends the darkness, whimsy, Machiavellian, comical, and alien best of all in his portrayal. Other actors and productions often choose a slice of the cake, he was the whole package.

For years I'd have said Baker or Pertwee, depending on the time of day, but having seen a few of the old serials with Hartnel, he has become my favorite. His character often has all the many facets the many actors have chosen to portray, but he blends the darkness, whimsy, Machiavellian, comical, and alien best of all in his portrayal. Other actors and productions often choose a slice of the cake, he was the whole package.

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Yes, I think some people don't realize how good he was, probably because of the line fluffs. He had gravitas and good comical timing, as you said, the whole package.

How come Smith's so popular all of a sudden. I remember clearly when David Tennant was being hailed as the best Doctor since Tom Baker.

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There was a lot of push back on Tennant when he took over from Eccelston because to a new generation of fans, Eccelston was the first Doctor. Eventually Tennant grew on people and got popular. Which is what's happened with Smith. Who ever is the current Doctor tends to win most of the popularity polls. The same will happen with then next guy.

How come Smith's so popular all of a sudden. I remember clearly when David Tennant was being hailed as the best Doctor since Tom Baker.

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It's a thing that DWM has commented on repeatedly over the last several years. Whoever is the current Doctor always ranks highly in polls. Usually either in the top slot, or in the second slot behind Tom Baker.

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Yeah, I find that annoying that it's always the latest thing that's the most popular.

Also, I'm surprised how popular Pertwee is. I've never been that fond of him.

The Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy. An eccentric manipulative imp and chess master that views the universe in a vastly different way to us humans. A truly alien outsider played by a wonderful character actor, who wouldn't fit the traditional leading man role in any other show.

After him I'd rank Tom, Bill, Pat, and Colin as my other favourites. I like all the actors who have played the part, I just prefer certain interpretations over others.

Pertwee in Season 7 is probably my favourite characterisation of The Doctor, and the man is a superlative actor. His era seriously degrades during Seasons 8-11 though to the point where a lot of my fondness for him weathered.

Pertwee in Season 7 is probably my favourite characterisation of The Doctor, and the man is a superlative actor.

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Pertwee was warm and charismatic, but he was a limited actor, with a very narrow range and not much to show off about his acting "bag of tricks". I remember several instances where he saw gurning as his only option to portray the Doctor getting knocked out, he stroke his chin whenever he was supposed to be puzzled by something, not to mention his lisp and his bizarre, stagy body language. Acting-by-shorthand is what he was doing, and there's nothing superlative about that. I've seen that kind of approach onstage quite frequently, but never by a professional actor.

Narrow range!? You think his performances as Worzel Gummidge and The Doctor are similar????

Not that there's anything bad with narrow range. McCoy is my favourite Doctor but I'd admit he generally plays a certain type of character.

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No, the Doctor and Worzel Gummidge are not similar. In my opinion, the fact that he was able to play more or less convincingly two different roles, one of them very broad, doesn't mean he didn't have a limited range.

And yes, having a limited range is very bad for an actor. It didn't just mean that he couldn't play a lot of different roles, it also meant that he couldn't play a lot of different emotions, and that's what acting requires. Of course, as you may remember, I think McCoy is an abysmal actor, so I won't add anything, besides saying that at least Pertwee had some gravitas.